Ponzi scheme fraud­ster given 15 years

DAY­TON, Ohio — A man ac­cused of de­fraud­ing nearly 500 peo­ple in a $70 mil­lion Ponzi scheme has been sen­tenced to 15 years in prison and or­dered to pay more than $32 mil­lion in resti­tu­tion.

Fed­eral au­thor­i­ties say 55-year-old Wil­liam Aposte­los, formerly of Spring­boro, Ohio, was sen­tenced Fri­day in fed­eral court in Day­ton. He pleaded guilty in Fe­bru­ary to con­spir­acy to com­mit mail and wire fraud, and theft or em­bez­zle­ment from an em­ployee ben­e­fit plan.